By Leah Buechley
I built this shirt to experiment with wearable computing and electronic textile technology and realized along the way that the basic materials were actually quite easy to work with and there was lots of room for creativity and innovation at all levels, so I was inspired to write up this do-it-yourself guide. Everyone should be playing with this stuff! It’s great fun for geeks and divas — build yourself a sparkly fashion accessory and program it with the Game of Life or other hacker animations. You’re guaranteed to turn heads whenever you’re out on the town.

Tools

Relevant Parts

Silver-coated thread
Surface mount LEDS
AVRmega15 microcontroller
DC power supply, 9V-15V
Serial adapter
Battery and holder
On/Off switches slide switches or toggle switchesAVR Programmer STK500 recommended
Lead-free solderSilver and brass crimping beads about twice as many as LEDsGarment or a piece of fabric and a pattern to make your ownGo to MAKE: Projects for the full directions and PDF